This is an activity about planning a planetary mission. Learners will play a card game to design a mission to Mars. This game will allow them to experience the fundamentals of the engineering design process as they use collaboration and...(View More) problem-solving skills to develop a mission that meets constraints (budget, mass, power) and criteria (significant science return). This activity can introduce many activities in technology education, including robotics and rocketry. The lesson models scientific inquiry using the 5E instructional model and includes teacher notes, vocabulary, student journal and reading.(View Less)

This is a lesson about the solar wind, Earth's magnetosphere, and the Moon. Participants will work in groups of two or three to build a model of the Sun-Earth-Moon system. They will use the model to demonstrate that the Earth is protected from...(View More) particles streaming out of the Sun, called the solar wind, by a magnetic shield called the magnetosphere, and that the Moon is periodically protected from these particles as it moves in its orbit around the Earth. Participants will also learn that the NASA ARTEMIS mission is a pair of satellites orbiting the Moon that measure the intensity of solar particles streaming from the Sun.(View Less)

This is a math-science integrated unit about spectrographs. Learners will find and calculate the angle that light is transmitted through a holographic diffraction grating using trigonometry. After finding this angle, the students will build their...(View More) own spectrographs in groups and research and design a ground or space-based mission using their creation. After the project is complete, student groups will present to the class on their trials, tribulations, and findings during this process. The activity is part of Project Spectra, a science and engineering program for middle-high school students, focusing on how light is used to explore the Solar System.(View Less)

This is a lesson about the design and operation of an ion propulsion engine. Learners will study the essential components and variables of an ion propulsion system. Activities include an on-line ion propulsion engine simulation and design. Included...(View More) are changes in energy and fuel consumption as a result of variable changes (dependent/independent variable relationships). This is activity 5 of 5 in Structure and Properties of Matter: Ion Propulsion.(View Less)

Learners will work in groups to design a water rocket that will be tested. They will be able to test two preliminary designs before deciding on the final one for the contest. Prior to launch, the rockets are put through a series of design tests....(View More) This is activity 7 of 7 in Dynamic Design: Launch and Propulsion.(View Less)

This lesson is about the assembly of the Genesis collector arrays. Learners will work in teams to complete the assembly of the array frame that they began in the "Working Together" lesson (lesson 9 in the module). Includes a teacher's guide and...(View More) students handouts. This lesson is 10 of 10 from the module, titled Dynamic Design: The Cleanroom.(View Less)

This is a lesson about the role of robots in space exploration. Learners will examine their prior notions of robots and then consider the characteristics and capabilities of a robot, like the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft, that would be sent into space...(View More) to explore another planet. Students compare robotic functions to human body functions. The lesson prepares students to design, build, diagram, and explain their own models of robots for space exploration in the Saturn system. This is activity 5 of 6 in the Saturn Educators Guide.(View Less)